The Effect of Parental Involvement in Academic and Behavioral Success of Students - Research Paper Example

The Effect of Parental Involvement in Academic and Behavioral Success To what extent does involving parents in education affect the student’s academic and behavioral success? Parental involvement improves student’s behavior and academic success in school. A successful parental involvement entails active and ongoing participation in the care of the students. Parents should help with homework, discuss school events within or outside school, and engage in reading at home with students. Parents should also attend functions and volunteer in classrooms. The schools should also engage parents, provide efficient communication, and incorporate them in the learning process. The activities improve educational experience and positive behavior change among students. According to Jeynes (2005), “a huge investment of optimal time parent, such as reading and prompt communication with one’s child, and the more restrained aspects of parental involvement, such as relevant parental style and expectations, had a greater impact on the student educational outcomes.” Students Gain Academic Advantage Parents who help with homework contribute to academic achievement of students. The extent of academic achievement is more when a student is getting attention from two parents than when a single parent is involved. The effect of parental involvement cuts across student’s population where both minority and majority students perform better. A research carried out byJeynes of hfrp.org (2005) found out that out of the overall population, students with high parental involvement registered high scores in the class while students whose parents ignored their academic life garnered poor grades. The research also found out that the student gain academic advantage when their parents monitor student’s homework both at home and school. A large investment of time in the academic life of students is critical because it determines platform for communication and reading with students. Parents have expectations from their students who are known when they engage with them both at home and school. The expectations revolve around greater educational outcomes and improvement of overall behavior of the students. The process must be maintained from the time a student joins the school, through middle school and when they have attained the age of majority in college. The effect tends to diminish at the maturity level because students become more responsible for their academics and behaviors than when their parents were in charge. Parents prepare their students for school besides sustaining their overall educational outcomes in the course of their studies. Students require optimal readiness before they join the school in order to have an idea of academic expectations at school. Parents have a huge influence on how students perform, for example, when they introduce simple concepts set to be taught in school (Topor, Keane, Shelton & Calkins, 2010). The idea of reading at night with students and introducing relevant methods of tackling assignments in school results in high education attainment. Students also tend to progress through each grade level with utter confidence and mastery when they have been readied for academic responsibilities. A delicate beginning in student’s educational development results to poor academic life because parents were less involved (Jeynes, 2005). Behavioral Change According to Hornby (2011), “for children, involvement of their parents is thought to lead to improvements in attitudes, behaviors and attendance of their children at school, as well as their mental health, .” The behavior of students is paramount, and it is linked to eventual academic success. Parents should monitor their students when they are at home and in school too. Schools require parents to observe utmost attendance and participate in prime school functions. The move helps to reinforce the role that is played by the teachers, principals and the school counselors in the behavioral development of students. Time-intensive activities such as reading and doing homework are not adequate in installing the correct behavior among students. The activities do not still positive attitude among students much as parental participation and engagement in school functions does. According to Jeynes (2010), “parental involvement is associated with having children who are less likely to take on in substance abuse, be discriminated against or be involved in the acts of violence”. Learning institutions set curriculum events where parents and teachers converse on the same platform on the issues that affect them when they are in school. The exercise is used to gauge the academic performance as well as the beliefs and behaviors that students in a school environment. Parents then know the right approach to use to ensure that the morals of their students are not corrupted. However, the success of the engagement is dependent on the cultural and learning environment that a parent has set at home. Methods That Result To Behavioral Change Parents should adopt certain practices that change the general behavior of students. The optimal involvement of parents should not be limited to learning at home where they monitor and help with homework. Workshops that are conducted in school should be used to encourage students and reinforce the role played by home visits. Parents should not be coerced to get involved in the behavioral change process, but they should adapt to volunteering life where they ensure that students stick to high attendance at school at all times. The attendance policies teach students how to uphold discipline. The policies can be communicated through newsletters and provision of contact information on the school. The process does not discriminate against parents with low income or from a particular ethnic community because they could limit the extent to which a parent manages to get involved in learning and behavioral change of their students. Parents are supposed to target a particular problem, for example, when a student has been involved in frequent fights in school. A parent then takes a defined course of action to know the cause of the behavior and initiate a room for change (Jeynes, 2010). Parental Involvement Barriers Parents prepare their students for school, walk with them to middle school and monitor their behavior when they reach the maturity stage. However, the entire process meets challenges that hamper the extent to which a parent would go to fulfill the behavior and academic expectations of a student. There are schools that do not engage parents in the academic learning process (Hornby, 2011). Teachers and school administrators assume that parents and families do not want to get involved and fail to provide an efficient communication platform. In addition, the barriers to communication such as lack of proficiency in the official language and lack of adequate time for the parents could result in a student life that does not involve any parental element. Hornby (2011) finds behavioral problem aspects among students could lead to reduced involvement in academic life of their kids. He wrote“ when children develop a reputation for exhibiting challenging behavior their parents can be reluctant to go into schools for fear of getting bad news. In fact, there is a negative correspondence between rapid parental involvement and children’s behavioral problems” (p. 18) It is evident from the discussion that parents want to get involved in the academic and behavior success right from the time they join the sschool to the time they attain the age of majority. Parents want to be involved, and it is wrong for institutions to assume that they do not want to offer support for learning and behavioral development of their students. The relationship between parents and students should be stable at all times to ensure behavioral and academic success. References Hornby, G. (2011). Parental involvement in childhood education.New York: Springer. Jeynes, W. (2005).Parental Involvement and Student Achievement: A Meta-Analysis / Browse Our Publications / Publications & Resources / HFRP - Harvard Family Research Project.Hfrp.org. Retrieved 28 January 2015, from http://www.hfrp.org/publications-resources/browse-our-publications/parental-involvement-and-student-achievement-a-meta-analysis Jeynes, W. (2010).Family factors and the educational success of children.London: Routledge. Topor, D., Keane, S., Shelton, T., & Calkins, S. (2010). Parent Involvement and Student Academic Performance: A Multiple Mediational Analysis.Journal Of Prevention & Intervention In The Community, 38(3), 183-197. doi:10.1080/10852352.2010.486297 Read More